D&D (2024) WotC is right to avoid the word "edition."

[Parmandur]

I am not sure if it is or isn't but you are putting out a point YOU believe in and I am asking for proof

Do you believe that more people are playing in the AL than the AL isnreporting...?

 

[Micah Sweet]

I'm not asking to make the game more complex... just to introduce a class that is similar to a full caster worth of complexity on a weapon wielder.

Again, I'm sorry but I just don't see that happening. WotC decided a while back that fighter was the simple class, and their research seems to indicate that the majority agree with them on that. They don't see it as a problem, so they won't fix it.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Do you believe that more people are playing in the AL than the AL isnreporting...?

no but I think that without evidence to the contrary I am not willing to call out AL players as against the norm... by the time you get to 2-3 thousand players and they are spread across the country, I think they are a pretty good slice of many different players

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Again, I'm sorry but I just don't see that happening. WotC decided a while back that fighter was the simple class, and their research seems to indicate that the majority agree with them on that. They don't see it as a problem, so they won't fix it.

fighter can be simple... introduce a warlord, make that the complex weapon/non spell class

 

[TwoSix]

I'm not asking to make the game more complex... just to introduce a class that is similar to a full caster worth of complexity on a weapon wielder.

Personally, I'd love to see the ranger take on that role of "complex martial". Give them dozens of selectable abilities that represent secret monster knowledge, ancient lore, and weapon techniques they've encountered on their wanderings.

 

[Maxperson]

Again, I'm sorry but I just don't see that happening. WotC decided a while back that fighter was the simple class, and their research seems to indicate that the majority agree with them on that. They don't see it as a problem, so they won't fix it.

It could be the Warlord, though.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Personally, I'd love to see the ranger take on that role of "complex martial". Give them dozens of selectable abilities that represent secret monster knowledge, ancient lore, and weapon techniques they've encountered on their wanderings.

my only issue is ranger is a caster

 

[Parmandur]

no but I think that without evidence to the contrary I am not willing to call out AL players as against the norm... by the time you get to 2-3 thousand players and they are spread across the country, I think they are a pretty good slice of many different players

That's really out how sampling works.

 

[Micah Sweet]

It could be the Warlord, though.

It could be, absolutely. I just don't think WotC is sufficiently motivated to make such a class. Are their shiny new fans demanding a complex martial? If they're not, they won't make one.

 

[Jahydin]

Everything about how Essentials was presented pointed to them thinking of it as a new edition, even it wasn't by their previous standards.

I don't know about that.

Just pulling up the first interview I found with the creators:

Rich: It’s perfectly ok if, at the same table, Joe is playing a Fighter straight out of the Players Handbook, with all of the power selections that he would ordinarily have had, and Dave, sitting next to him, is playing a Slayer, out of Essentials. Those Characters, essentially, are built the same, and are transparent to each other – they have the same sorts of stats and same sorts of defenses. The only difference, really, is that the guy playing the Players Handbook Fighter is thinking in terms of power usage, and what his encounter powers, daily powers, and at will powers are doing, while the guy playing the Essentials Fighter is taking a step back and saying, ‘you know, I don’t want to manage that level of decision-making, and I’m going to concentrate on doing what I think my guy should do – which is trying to wale on people with my sword, and be the tough guy for the party!’

Mike: And that’s one of the nice things too for Players just coming in [to D&D], they only have to deal with one book to start with. And then, at the right point, when they want to start adding in more options, they can maybe buy a Martial Powers or a Players Hand Book 1, and they are slowly adding more options.

Interviewer: "So it really became clear to me that the main purpose of the D&D Essentials was not to create a new version of the game, but to provide a way to get new Players into 4E, whether they had no experience with D&D or if they had not played since a previous version"